Category: Photos

Today’s Photo

In Virginia the streams they call “run” often have more water than the streams we in New Mexico call “river”. Taken October 18, 2013, iPhone 4S. Click for larger version.
In Virginia the streams they call “run” often have more water than the streams we in New Mexico call “river.” Broad Run, taken October 18, 2013, iPhone 4S. Click for larger version.

Today’s Photos

You think that Autumns in New England
Are the greatest of them all.
But give me sweet Virginia for the fireworks of Fall.
The prettiest October in all the fifty states.
Just drive up to the Skyline,
Park the car and wait.

Eddie from Ohio, “Old Dominion”

Alas, the color was not yet its best October 16th, the day I visited. Pretty, still.

Taken with iPhone 6 Plus, Shenandoah National Park (Skyline Drive). Click for larger versions.

Wildlife at Casa NewMexiKen

Bear

This is a gif loop from 10 stills taken of the bear in my backyard June 27, 2013.

I love watching the bear problem solve — how do I get over that wall? She (he?) eventually jumped onto the berm, a leap of about 5 vertical and 5 horizontal feet. She visited again, once or twice, but I didn’t see her, only her sign. Bears have been much more scarce since the horrible winnowing of 2013, a bad drought year.

Bobcat

My cat, taken April 21, 2015. He also has been around from time-to-time, but this was my one sighting.

Bunny

One of many bunnies through the years.

These photos were taken through windows. I didn’t want to frighten the wildlife away by opening the door or screen — and I didn’t really want to let them in.

Humor Me

To you this is a nothing photo of a tiny, blurry object.

To me it is a photo of the International Space Station as it passed 249 miles above Albuquerque a few minutes ago at 4.76 miles per second.

ISS

It’s fun to see. Get yourself a good astronomy app — I favor Sky Guide, which sends me a notice when the ISS is visible at my location.

Ho Hum

Just another sunset.

Always fearing I will miss the color, I don’t run down to get in front of the power pole. I should I suppose.

Tonight, instead I tried it with the zoom — no power pole, but still the wires. Both taken from the street in front of Casa NewMexiKen. Uncropped.

Focal length (35mm): 157 mm ISO 220
Focal length (35mm): 157 mm ISO 220
Focal length 35mm: 300 mm ISO 400
Focal length 35mm: 300 mm ISO 400

Yikes!

I can deal with bears in the backyard and bobcats on the courtyard wall — and the coyotes singing at night — but this creature scared me. The photo is poor and you can’t really see his stinger curled up — I hurried for fear he would scamper under the bed and I would have to move to Nova Scotia. 

 
According to Wikipedia, a scorpion sting does not require medical attention except for children or the elderly. I did not find that reassuring. 

I had never seen a scorpion before; this one was between my chair and my bed. 

Ansel and Me

Ansel Adams Sign Grand Teton National Park, August 22, 2015
Ansel Adams Sign Grand Teton National Park, August 22, 2015
Click the image above and read the sign.

And here is an image I made at that spot three weeks ago.

Snake River and Teton Range, August 22, 2015
Snake River and Teton Range, August 22, 2015
The Teton Range is there, you can almost see it through the smoke (from wildfires in Idaho and Washington). The trees seem to have grown in the 73 years since 1942. They now hide the bend in the Snake River. Or maybe I should have stood on the roof of my car like Ansel Adams. (It was a rental Toyota Camry, however. My Lexus SUV was having its radiator replaced after an incident with an elk two nights earlier in Yellowstone.)

One of the singular highlights of my archival career was the day 30-or-so years ago when I received unannounced in my inbox at the National Archives — where I directed the records appraisal program — the Official Personnel Folder (OPF) for one Adams, Ansel Easton. The file was due for routine disposal but a conscientious and alert staffer at the Office of Personnel Management thought that maybe Mr. Adams’s file was worth preserving. It was. (That same staffer also preserved Woodie Guthrie’s OPF.)

For reference, Adams’s famous photo.

Ansel Adams, 1942
Ansel Adams, 1942